NEW DELHI: Contrary to Italy's case that its two Marines killed two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012 out of mistaken identity, suspecting them to be pirates advancing towards the ship they were guarding, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claims to have proof that the Marines used deadly force without any provocation and that they had no reason to believe that the boat approaching them had pirates on board.

A senior NIA official has revealed to ET that this contention forms part of the charge-sheet readied by the agency but not filed so far as Italy has challenged India's jurisdiction to try them and the matter is pending in the SC.

"The Marines committed straight murder. They fired at a fishing boat without any provocation and without any real indication of it being a pirate boat," the official said, revealing details of the charge-sheet. He said no warning shots or mini-flares were fired by the Marines in the air to warn the fishermen who had never opened any fire."20 shots were straightway fired from automatic weapons at the fishermen in the boat which was just 125 meters away from the ship," the NIA official said, adding that it is not possible that the Marines could mistake them from pirates from such a "close distance".

The case has raised diplomatic tensions between India and Italy. The charge-sheet against the Marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, is also said to refer to violations by them of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Best Management Practices Guide regarding anti-piracy.

"This international guide specifies what a likely pirate boat is. The boat carrying the fishermen had no such characteristics. We have learnt that the Marines were also on their first anti-piracy assignment aboard the MV Enrica Lexie and were apparently not well-trained to handle such matters," an official said. The official added that the Marines were questioned but their stock reply was that they were under instructions to not speak to us and not give us any answers.

These officials said they were strongly objecting to Italy's plea in SC challenging NIA's jurisdiction to charge them saying the incident happened in international waters to which Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not apply.

Two innocents, trying to make ends meet, feed their children, are killed. And the two criminals responsible be let to live. Ridiculous.
They must be killed, by round to head, and bill for ammo and ceremony, sent to nearest relative.
But instead the Indian govt. sends them home to enjoy Christmas.
Faggotry.

India a weak, third-world country that can't even exert influence on Sri Lanka. You think we should risk antagonizing a rich nation?

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We have a long way to go, but we laugh and spit at your beloved Muslim nations, whose rulers cannot even fart without Western permission. Most Muslim nations which are not under direct control of Western nations are complete hellholes. Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, etc. Pakistan, which makes a great show of being anti-American, cannot even hold on to an American defense contractor who dispatched two Pakis to their 72. Pakis can only moan when the West kills two dozen soldiers on the border through airstrike.

Maybe it is better to let all Muslim nations be ruled by the UN. Anyway they are incapable of managing their own affairs, as modern history has shown - repeatedly.

These officials said they were strongly objecting to Italy's plea in SC challenging NIA's jurisdiction to charge them saying the incident happened in international waters to which Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not apply.

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How far off the Kerala coast did this incident occur in nautical miles or km? Anyone know?

According to the Indian Coast Guard, Indian government sources and the crew of the fishing boat St. Antony, the incident occurred at approximately 16:30 IST (11:00 UTC) on 15 February 2012, when the fishing boat was returning from a fishing expedition and happened within the Indian Contiguous Zone around 20.5 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala.

We have a long way to go, but we laugh and spit at your beloved Muslim nations, whose rulers cannot even fart without Western permission. Most Muslim nations which are not under direct control of Western nations are complete hellholes. Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, etc. Pakistan, which makes a great show of being anti-American, cannot even hold on to an American defense contractor who dispatched two Pakis to their 72. Pakis can only moan when the West kills two dozen soldiers on the border through airstrike.

Maybe it is better to let all Muslim nations be ruled by the UN. Anyway they are incapable of managing their own affairs, as modern history has shown - repeatedly.

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I agree with you that Muslim nations are also in a similar position as India.

I tell you again, Muslim nations should be ruled by the UN, or by a group of external nations such as US/UK/Germany/India/China/Japan etc. They are incapable of ruling themselves. They either end up as violent shitholes or complete Western lackeys.

I tell you again, Muslim nations should be ruled by the UN, or by a group of external nations such as US/UK/Germany/India/China/Japan etc. They are incapable of ruling themselves. They either end up as violent shitholes or complete Western lackeys.

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That's what I think, too. They are incapable of responsible self-government: they cannot govern themselves. And as well as violent shitholes, Western lackeys on life support from Western foreign aid, they also end up as religious oligarchical dictatorships that are either massively underdeveloped and impoverished or that survive on oil revenues.

I have often wondered what will happen if and when the industrialised world is no longer dependent on the oil resources of the Middle East. If it weren't for Arabian oil, no one would give a tinker's cuss about the Middle East or Islam.

I tell you again, Muslim nations should be ruled by the UN, or by a group of external nations such as US/UK/Germany/India/China/Japan etc. They are incapable of ruling themselves. They either end up as violent shitholes or complete Western lackeys.

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Appu, calm down. If India is so strong, let's see if it stands up to Italy and honors the dead fishermen. On the contrary, we can easily predict that India will suffer humiliation at the world stage and get snubbed by the Italians. Same old, same old....

The Non-aligned Movement should be resurrected as an effective countervailing bloc of countries to the U.S.-led West and the Sino-Russian bloc. India would be the logical and natural choice to lead a non-aligned bloc, as she did in the Cold War.